I have seen Uri Grossman many times, wearing the red shirt that marked him as one of us, the supporters of Hapoel Jerusalem football club. I took no interest in him. He was 16 years younger than me, a kid. I was in awe, however, of his father, the great writer David Grossman, who would sometimes accompany him to the matches. And though Grossman is famously approachable and kind to his fans, I never dared go tell him what influence his writing had on me as a person.

I was 17 when his book The Yellow Wind , which foresaw the first Intifada's outbreak, was published. This book, together with the writings of human rights lawyer Felicia Langer, Winnie Mandela's Part of my Soul and Salman Rushdie's The Jaguar Smile were the bricks of my construction as a political person.

But even more than that, his fantastic humane novels, masterpieces of compassion and brilliant Hebrew, made it impossible for me but to shy away from trying to speak to him. And anyway, all of us were too preoccupied watching our football players get humiliated Friday in and Friday out. At the time it seemed that sinking to the third division was the greatest evil that loomed in our horizon.

But a few weeks ago, in a social gathering with Israeli friends, the news reached us. On that very day, the last day of the second Lebanon war, Uri Grossman was killed in Lebanon. The ginger boy with the red t-shirt will never be seen in the Teddy Football Stadium of Jerusalem again. None of us ever exchanged a word with Grossman, but yet we were struck by something near to personal bereavement.

At the funeral Grossman told of how he taught his son to obey the orders and than ask the hard questions. Uri's commander told how the young soldier confessed to opposing the war, but reassured the commander that he could always count on him to do what was required. It made many in the Israeli left doubly sorry, for the loss of the young man as much as for the fact that he was raised to be a participant in Israel's war policies, but all were waiting to hear Grossman speak out politically again. They tried to do it patiently, and with respect for the author's grief, but we are not a very patient people at the best of times. On Israeli websites sad and confused readers paid tributes, and reflected the crisis of leadership which has befallen upon Israel. "Lead our way, David", called a few of them. Some explicitly urged the writer to go into politics.

The wait ended in the memorial gathering for Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister murdered 11 years ago, last week in Tel Aviv. As Hillel Schenker wrote earlier today, Grossman forwarded the cry for leadership to the current prime minister, Ehud Olmert. "Turn to the Palestinians, Mr Olmert, address them over the heads of Hamas, appeal to their moderates, those who like you and I oppose Hamas and its ways, turn to the Palestinian people, speak to their deep grief and wounds, acknowledge their ongoing suffering."

Grossman added: "You will not be able to dismiss my words tonight by saying a grieving man cannot be judged. Certainly I am grieving, but I am more pained than angry. This country and what you and your friends are doing to it pains me".

Grossman's speech took over the headlines in the next days' newspapers, and was broadcast live on Israeli television. It enraged the government despite the fact that its stance was far from radical. Grossman spoke to the prime minister as if he was a partner for peace and not a leader of war. He merely rephrased - with a moving delivery - the old self-deceiving stance of the Israeli Labour movement, calling for a dialogue with the opposition to the Palestinian's elected government, rather than with the people who may actually be able to deliver a deal. Like Grossman, many in the Israeli Zionist left spend political lifetimes lamenting over not having negotiated with some "moderates" who no longer call the shots.

Olmert, a fellow Jerusalemite and a devoted fan of the rival team, Beitar Jerusalem, obviously took little notice; His war machine strides on, carrying death on its wings. Over 50 Palestinian civilians were killed and 200 injured in the Israeli operation in Beit Hanun, in northern Gaza, over the last week.